It’s been a good year – at the very least, in terms of reading. It was nice to discover a bunch of new authors (maybe not new to the world, but certainly new to me) and that’s what this week’s Top Ten Tuesday is about. Here are my top ten new-to-me authors of 2012.
The thing about Facebook is that it keeps you in contact with people who otherwise may long have been forgotten. My parents and grandparents had to work a lot harder to keep in touch with their school friends – for us, it’s the click of a button. My parents may only have heard of the passing of a classmate at their high school reunion. I discovered it on Facebook.
1. I hate money. Like, really, its existence complicates things. Long story short: that sponsor I spoke about doesn’t seem to be working. You can imagine the distress that caused. A very kind company is having a meeting on Monday and hopefully they can help me. If not, my parents, who are amazing, might take out a loan for me. Which I’ll have to repay once I start working. Which is not ideal, considering I already have a fat student loan leering at me. But considering the circumstances, I’m happy.
2. My plane tickets were booked today. I’m going to have lots and lots of stops along the way, but that’s okay too. In exactly one month minus a day, I’ll be on that plane.
In the near future the guilty are allocated an animal to signify their burden. Johannesburg, South Africa is darker and dirtier than we know it, and Zinzi December is in the middle of it – the violence, the drugs and the dirty scams.
Zinzi is also gifted, as all the animalled are. She has a penchant for finding lost things, but she insists: No stolen goods. No people. Definitely no missing persons.
Until finding a missing teeny-bopper will be her opportunity to escape a life she was not bred for. A chance to denounce the hand-to-mouth existence, scrambling to find the missing threads of other lives. But never, never to escape the threat of the undertow.
When Mao Zedong uttered, “Women hold up half the sky”, he ushered in a new age for China. Arguably, when China moved towards utlising their entire population by empowering women, they moved towards the economic powerhouse they are today.
In Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide, Pulitzer prize-winning couple Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn address the pertinent issue of equality and education for women and girls, and the far-reaching effects that may have.
It’s Christmas! And unlike Halloween and Thanksgiving, we do celebrate this one in South Africa (what a relief)! Last year I made a wish list with The Broke and the Bookish, and I got two of those books. Here are my “Top Ten Books I wouldn’t mind Santa bringing me”. Pretty please, Santa! I should note that I don’t generally buy normal reading books, as I feel I’ll only read them once, in which case I could get them from the library. So a book’s gotta be pretty special for me to want to own a copy thereof.
Thoughts: I’m feeling blue. I looked forward to these holidays, and I don’t want them to end, but at the same time I feel like I’m drifting around. No exams to study for, no student government projects to work on… I’m reading a lot, which I should love, but I feel like I should DO something!
I don’t want Medicine to be what defines my life. Surely there must be more? I don’t believe that it is the ultimate goal. And I don’t believe that I can’t be anything worthwhile before I finally get that piece of paper. But what to do? Is this a normal feeling?
Semester at Sea continues to give me sleepless nights. Visas are a constant nightmare, so much so that I now need to apply for a temporary passport so that my travel agent can apply for my Moroccan visa once I have already left the country. Their embassy won’t let me apply for the visa before mid-January. Only, I don’t think one is allowed to have a passport and a temporary passport at the same time.
The only thing that has been helping for my… what? Frustration? Is running and chocolate. But not being particularly fit, I can only run so far.
This week is my one year anniversary of doing Top Ten Tuesdays with TBTB! Thought you should know 
Round about this time every year I become a little disillusioned with available books. It begins to feel like the choices out there are really just rehashed – the same special powers, weird worlds, forbidden romances. Fortunately the despair does not last long – there is always a good book to find! I don’t usually look forward to new releases as they reach South Africa sooooo late, but in the spirit of dreaming along with The Broke and the Bookish, here are my top ten 2013 releases:
I’m linking this up with The Daily Post’s Weekly Photo Challenge. The theme this week is is Thankful. As I mentioned before, we don’t celebrate Thanksgiving in South Africa. Nevertheless, I’ve attended a couple of Thanksgiving dinners before and I love the idea of some good gratefulness. I am inclined to become a little whiny. Christine at Bookishly Boisterous made a list of 100 things she is grateful for. I’m going to try that too. Let’s see if I can do this! (Photo elaboration at bottom of page)
Made you look, didn’t I?
I still love books. This is a fun meme started by SarawithnH, but I saw it at Anna’s Pocket Full of Books. It’s all about books coinciding with illnesses, which sounds weird but is actually really cute. I’m tired and this is the most medical thing I can muster at the moment.
